


We'll Never Be Bored

by slashmania



Series: life is stranger [4]
Category: Inception (2010), Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Genre: Jogging, Love, M/M, all the speed walking mothers want to look at Arthur's hot bod, hot bods, life in dreamshare, relationships, talk of previous dangerous situations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:41:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22036462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmania/pseuds/slashmania
Summary: Eames brushed his thumb across the bridge of Arthur’s nose. “Sometimes when you’ve gotten more sun, you get freckles right here. I think they make you look wholesome.”“I’m so sad, my badass card will be revoked if I’m caught looking wholesome, or worse,cute.”But Arthur was smiling as he said this. Eames’s own smile widened.
Relationships: Arthur/Eames (Inception)
Series: life is stranger [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1226819
Kudos: 31





	We'll Never Be Bored

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, I love their relationship so much. Have some cuteness! Have some love!

Eames took to the world of dreamshare like a duck takes to water. Of course it helped that he’d written an entire novel about the subject before he had ever met Arthur in real life.

Because before Eames had ever been a dream criminal, he’d been a best-selling novelist known for always giving his character’s a happy ending. His last novel, the unfinished one, had been all about _Arthur, the dream criminal_. 

Neither Arthur nor Eames questioned it as much as they had in the past. Before, when they had first met in the flesh it had been one of the biggest issues—Arthur, worried about being stuck in Limbo and dreaming up this nonsense, had literally ended up extracting from his own author.

If anything, Arthur tried his best to not even think about the implications of this. Arthur had a past. Arthur had a family. He had friends, an excellent job, and now had a very handsome partner who once made his bread and butter writing books. And one of those books happened to be about _him._

No, Arthur was real. Eames was real. They both went through hell just to prove it to each other. They proved to each other that the relationship which blossomed when they first met, despite the otherworldly circumstances, had a shot of lasting once they actually got to know each other for a bit longer to see if they matched without the element of danger and intrigue.

And they did!

If Eames were honest, he’d explain that he’d been half in love with Arthur since the very first dream he’d had about the sexy and competent dream criminal. And then the months of working on his story, his background, and his development through Cobb’s tragedy. But the original ending had given him such trouble! Originally the story was meant to end with Cobb’s homecoming against all odds, with Arthur having satisfied his need to see Cobb home safely, and maybe by repaying the memory of his dearest friend, Mal.

Now that Eames and Arthur were working in the same business, on the same team, every single day was an adventure.

Eames enjoyed mornings with Arthur most of all. Now that they were finally at home after that fuckup of a job, they took a well deserved rest from everything dreamshare related.

Arthur wasn’t a heavy sleeper, but sometimes Eames just liked to lie next to the man and watch him while he was so sleepy and couldn’t notice how hard Eames was focusing on him in the early morning light.

This was one of those mornings, but Arthur happened to open one eye that wasn’t smushed against his pillow and caught Eames looking.

“Are you done staring at me creepily?” Arthur asked.

“Never creepily, darling.”

“I’m looking at you right now, and I can say that this looks a bit creepy.”

“Is it so wrong that sometimes I really like it that I wake up earlier than you do because it gives me the chance to admire you?”

Arthur stopped smushing his face against the pillow and rolled over so he was on his side and looked at Eames, both eyes open this time.

“What more could you possibly find?”

Eames brushed his thumb across the bridge of Arthur’s nose. “Sometimes when you’ve gotten more sun, you get freckles right here. I think they make you look wholesome.”

“I’m so sad, my badass card will be revoked if I’m caught looking wholesome, or worse, _cute_.”

But Arthur was smiling as he said this. Eames’s own smile widened.

“I like that there are things that I don’t know about you still. I like that there are things that I didn’t even think of while I spent months burying myself in character and plot development as I wrote and typed it all out. It means that I get to discover new things about you every day, love. We’ll never be bored with one another.”

It went unspoken, but it was true. Arthur was real. Arthur had always been real, but he’d also heard Eames narrating his life for several years in dreamshare, because that was the story Eames had been writing.

“I like little moments like this,” Eames said.

“It still doesn’t really address the fact that you also enjoy staring at me creepily.”

Eames shrugged. “I once had to make little sketches of you if I wanted to stare. And I wouldn’t describe my staring as _creepy_. We share the same bed. If I happened to be staring at you through the window, or following you down the street I would qualify as creepy. And a stalker. But then you would be able to take care of me easily.”

Arthur nodded. “I would most likely handle it by punching you in the throat, and then running away, Eames.”

Eames placed one hand against his throat, looked uncomfortable. “Really, love? Violence?”

“In this hypothetical situation you’re stalking me. I can use force if I deem it necessary.”

But Arthur softened his words by pressing a kiss against Eames’s lips.

“I probably wouldn’t deem it necessary, but it’s good to have my options open, just in case.”

“Just be grateful that I let you kiss me in spite of your morning breath.”

“I’m grateful for everything that you let me do,” Arthur answered honestly as he pulled away.

Eames knew what was coming next, but couldn’t pretend to be too tired really. He had this need to prove to Arthur that now that they were in a relationship and business partners he also wanted to keep a similar regimen to boost his health.

Even if he really didn’t want to go out this early. And Arthur, because he was perfect, knew this and tried to give Eames an out.

As he got out of bed, naked as the day he was born, Arthur said, “You don’t have to come along with me every time I want to go for a morning jog.”

Eames sighed, but got up, letting the blankets pool around his waist. “It’s better for me if I do. I need to get stronger and faster, I need to be able to keep up with you out in the field _and_ in dreams.”

Arthur was willing to say it outright, though. “And it’s harder for one of us to be captured if we continue to do stuff as a pair, right?”

The memory of Arthur’s capture for extraction by Yvette’s team still weighed heavily on Eames. Arthur had only stepped outside for a quick jog. He’d left his phone behind on accident, was found by Yvette and Peter, tazed, and transported to another location where he could be hooked up to a PASIV.

And Eames had found Cobb, the real Cobb, not just the Squint he’d written about in Arthur’s story. Eames had gone to rescue Arthur. He’d managed it. He’d even given up the story by breaking the flash drive that contained his nearly completed draft.

Eames had wanted Arthur, not the character or the story, but the man himself. This was his life now.

“What if I just like spending time with you, in addition to doing healthy activities and stuff?”

Eames got out of bed and moved past Arthur to select something to change into for their jog.

“Then we’ll have a great time, Eames.”

* * *

“How are you doing?”

Eames attempted not to pant in response to Arthur’s polite, and not at all out of breath, question. That beautifully healthy bastard. Eames grimaced as he thought that, though.

“Aside from wanting to die a little, I think I’m getting better at this. Keeping up with you at least,” Eames amended as he leaned against a lamppost while Arthur took a drink of water. Eames got to admire the line of Arthur’s throat while the point man was drinking, sort of lost his train of thought, and then picked it up again.

“Or trying to keep up with you, if I’m being completely honest about it.”

“You do try very hard. And you are getting better.”

“How can you do that?” Eames asked Arthur, noticing how the man was relaxed and not breathing like he had had been running while drawing breath through a straw clenched between his teeth. Eames waved his hand at Arthur, encompassing everything even though he only really meant how Arthur didn’t look half-dead.

Thankfully, Arthur got the gist of it.

“Well, I watch what I eat.”

“It’s true, I have seen you stare down a BLT like you’re waiting for it to crack and tell you what you want to know.”

“I work out like we are now a few times a week. Or if I’m stressed out and need to think. Our work also includes a fair amount of physical activity either in dreams or in reality.”

“Running away from idiots can’t account for your overall perfection, love. It just can’t!”

Arthur smiled. “You’re well aware how many times I’ve had to run away from idiots, Eames. I remember all the times I would hear your voice describing my actions as I took them.”

Eames straightened up. “Are you saying that I’m to blame for your...what do you American’s say? Is the slang for it supposed to be _hot bod_ , darling? Are you blaming your _hot bod_ on me, Arthur?”

“Take a drink of water and stop referring to my hot bod,” Arthur said as he passed the water bottle to Eames. “All the speed walking mothers are pausing to stare.”

“Yes. They all want to look at your hot bod.”

Then Eames waved to a group of speed walking women, smiling at them as they attempted to not make it so obvious that they’d been staring at Arthur as they approached and then finally passed the spot where Arthur and Eames were standing on the street.


End file.
